Mobile web development - how to?

Question

Hello,

I would like to start developing mobile-friendly versions of websites for my clients, however, I am baffled with options and google search wasn't very helpful - there is so many options and opinions, I've been reading for few days now and still have no idea how to start.

What's your opinion/experience about/with it?

My main points:

• mobile devices supported (in order of relevance): iPhone 3G, iPhone 2G, Blackberry, Droid powered mobiles, other
• phone friendly numbers, phone friendly emails
• contact/register form working on each (or the most possible) devices listed

jQTouch seems superb (simple, quick, working), I'm not sure about it on blackberry/droid and I don't want to create 6 web versions for each mobile device - Makes even less sense if you consider, that I'm starting with small web (6-10 pages, 1 contact form, 3 register forms) to play with.

Thank you

Answer 1

Have you heard of NetBiscuits?

http://www.netbiscuits.com/

Answer 2

my 2c; the best approach is the one we use on the web as we know it; cross-browser development.

use (basic) html & css to start with (ensuring you'll reach as many handsets as possible) & progressively enhance by adding more complex stuff (javascript & more specific css) for more advanced devices.

jqtouch (which has to be combined with jquery if i'm not mistaking) is swell, but very much iphone-centric (some of the nifty css-stuff doesn't work anywhere else). a (slightly) more cross-platform js-framework is the jquery-like xui.

once you have something up and running, testing it on mobi.ready might be a good idea.

Answer 3

Doesn't HTML5 do the trick?

Answer 4

Check out the mobiforge site, which is run by dotMobi. They have a very powerful tool called ready.mobi which you can use to get a health check on your mobile site. The results give advice on what you need to do to improve your site, so getting a really well optimised site is simply a case of testing and taking note of the recommendations. Mine now get 5/5 scores as a result of using it and work really well on any device, including many I never really tested it under. I can't recommend it enough.

Answer 5

• Mobile Devices: See QuirksMode.org for charts, tutorials, and more to get your pages working on multiple mobile browsers. (Blackberry might be the hardest on your list)
• Phone friendly links: Not sure why this would be difficult, as far as I am aware, all mobile browsers/OS's support the same mailto: protocol that desktops use. Most phones also support tel: so you can have links like:

<a href="tel:555-555-1212">Call Me</a>

The only issue there is desktop computers generally don't have a way to handle that standard despite being able to link with Bluetooth phones. (Feature request for those in OS development)

• Contact/Register Forms: Again, most mobile browser support basic form elements out of the box, the key here is more user experience. Anything you can do to reduce the amount of data entry will lead to more users filling out the form. (Remember the user's session info for a long time, they will go back to the page after they finish the 2 hour call from their mother)